Classical Music | Tenor

Recorded on 12/31/1969, uploaded on 06/20/2015

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Heine’s satirical tone is evident in the eleventh song, “Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen” (“A young man loved a maiden”). The poet tells the timeless story of a young man that loves a maiden, while she loves another man. Ironically, the second man loves a different woman causing the woman, out of spite, to marry the first man that comes along. Indeed, the brief story, narrated within two stanzas, provides a brief moment of comedy, and even borders on turning the entire song cycle thus far into a cliché. Yet, for the poet, the story is very much real, and his heart still breaks with the pain of his loss (“Und wem sie just passieret, / Dem bricht das Herz entzwei”). Abandoning the minor keys that have dominated the last few songs, Schumann’s setting adopts the key of E-flat major, further highlighting Heine’s parody of hapless love. The vocal melody makes use of a frequent dactylic rhythm that gives it a sardonic demeanor, which is further amplified by the mocking off-beat accents of the piano accompaniment. While a few brief turns towards the minor mode during the first half of the song can leave one to wonder if Schumann fully subscribes to Heine’s derision, the comical tone of the latter half, including the sudden and brief modulation into G-flat major, establishes the song as a derisive commentary on the narrative thus far.    Joseph DuBose

Recorded live on August 19th of 1965 at the Salzburg Festival.

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